K-State baseball earns first NCAA regional bid since 2013

MANHATTAN (KSNT) - Kansas State fans can breath a sigh of relief, the Wildcats are going dancing.

K-State received an at-large NCAA tournament regional bid, as announced on ESPN2 on Monday. K-State is in the Fayetteville regional, hosted by Arkansas. K-State will play Louisiana Tech in the first round. The Razorbacks are the No. 5 overall seed in the tournament.

It will be the Wildcats' first NCAA regional appearance since 2013. The at-large selection serves as extra satisfying for K-State after head coach Pete Hughes and his players felt they were wrongfully excluded in 2023.

64 teams made the tournament. The NCAA baseball regionals are double elimination and will run Friday, May 31 through Monday, June 3.

K-State enters national postseason play with a 32-24 overall record. The Wildcats went 15-15 in regular season conference games before going 1-2 in the Big 12 tournament.

A difficult non-conference schedule boosted the 'Cats to a No. 45 RPI ranking, nationally, which likely boosted K-State to the dance compared to other Big 12 teams with similar records.

K-State will be looking for a second wind in its NCAA regional games after going 4-6 in its last 10 games.